Despite the obvious strains on resources a crisis can bring about, this crisis reveals that our society has long had plenty of the material resources to meet people’s basic needs. If ‘normal’ means a return to an inadequate health care system and widening economic disparities, we must not return to normal.

Info you need, including details on the "Stay at Home" statewide order issued this morning (March 30), the critical importance of the Census, and why Progressive Maryland and allies are backing the People's Bailout -- and what it means.

As the coronavirus emergency overtook Maryland, day by day and with new restrictions piling up, thousands have watched their jobs evaporate under their feet. Some workers, in food service and retail, can't telework the human contact they provided. The story of one restaurant's slow dissolution, and the impact -- physical and mental -- on workers, plays out here in Kurt Stand's personal account.

/PM BlogSpace Report/ Developer cash has long ruled the roost in Prince George’s County government. In the 2012 reform of “pay to play” electoral culture outlined here, Council members and the executive were barred from such campaign contributions from active applicants as posing a clear conflict of interest.

Now a powerful committee chair, Dereck E. Davis of Prince George’s, has engineered a reversal of that protection. Bad things may happen.

The Memo this week focuses again on how our lives have changed and how to get what we need in the worst health emergency most of us have ever gone through. We start with food for our kids and move on to other matters like health care access (Maryland has reopened enrollment) and justice for all. News of our Progressive Maryland chapters and our blog posts are, as always, on offer.

We have put the details of local enhanced services in an annex post you can find here.

Here are changes and new services from counties around Maryland to meet the emergency needs of the many who are sheltering in place. Today, March 23, 2020, Governor Larry Hogan ordered all businesses not deemed essential to shut down at 5 PM until further notice.

The Memo this week focuses on how our lives have changed and how to get what we need. We start with food for our kids and move on to other matters like health care access (Maryland reopens enrollment). News of our Progressive Maryland chapters and action priorities as the General Assembly moves to adjourn this Wednesday – in other words, our regular Memo details including our blog posts --are tucked in below the lead section on access to necessities in the health emergency.

With the federal response struggling, Maryland is one of the dozen or so states where state-mandated paid sick leave can provide a faster path to channeling resources to the low-income people hardest-hit.

In the Memo this week: a roundup of the broad scope of legislation requiring attention from Maryland's progressives as the Session is nearing the home stretch; news from our chapters, events from our progressive allies, and of course our recent blog posts.

Lots still going on in the Annapolis session heading toward Crossover deadline for bills to move in both chambers. Here are good pro-people bills that need to stay viable this session and need progressive Marylanders' help.